Meet the Makers

I met these two beautiful sisters while on a spiritual trip to Lake Atitlan with my teacher, Sweet Medicine Nation*.

Tomasa and Elizabeth live in a very small village near Lake Atitlan and spend their days working to keep the traditional art of Mayan weaving alive. All of the weavings that are for sale on this page were made by them and their family and other women from their community. There are six women in their family and they are all weavers. They are devoted to preserving the spirit of the fabric and the old ways, valuing knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation for many, many cycles. Keeping this ancestral knowledge alive is of the utmost importance to them and to the women they weave with.

Many of the women they weave with cannot write or speak Spanish, but are only able to speak the ancient Mayan language. Weaving is a lifeline for these women as it helps them survive and keep food on the table.

All of the colors in the garments come from nature and are made with natural dyes. Most of the figures in them are also symbols and recreations of animals and beings from the natural world that play such a huge part of living in Guatemala. Everything in their work is related to Mother Earth. As Tomasa says, “We live in front of a lake with four volcanoes [Lake Atitlan] and we try to capture them in our fabrics, both the color and the figures”.

They do not have a storefront, but instead rely on selling their fabrics and garments on the streets.

Your fair-trade purchase will go so far for them and will go directly into their pockets!

*You can read more about Sweet Medicine Nation on her website here or find her on Instagram here @sweetmedicinenation